Pleurothallis flexuosa (Poepp. & Endl.) Lindl. 1842 SUBGENUS Effusae Luer 2000
Photos by Dalton Holland Baptista.
Drawings by Carl Luer
to 
Common Name The Bent Inflorescence Pleurothallis
Flower Size 1/5" [5mm]
Found in Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Bolivia in wet montane forests at elevations of 350 to 1900 meters as a miniature sized, hot to cool growing, caespitose epiphyte with an erect ramicaul, enveloped basally by several scarious sheaths giving rise to a single, narrowly elliptical, acute, narrowing below into the conduplicate petiolate base leaf that blooms at most any time of the year on a 6.8" [17 cm] long, flexuous, from low on the ramicaul, several successively single flowered inflorescence with much shorter than the pedicel floral bracts and holding the flowers well above the leaves.
" Variable in size and color with the ramicauls distinctly shorter than the narrowly elliptic leaves. A long loose,flexuous raceme bears successively gaping flowers that are densely villous within. The color of the hairs varies from white to bright purple and the flower color varies from purples to yellow to nearly black. The petals are spathulate and the small lip is longitudinally three lobed with a midline callus and it is unguiculate. There are 2 distinct variations , one bears small flowers, with gray and black sepals .24" [6 mm] long with white hairs, the other bears larger flowers with purple spotted sepals .48" [12 mm] long, with purple hairs. In the small flowers the longitudinal carinae of the lateral lobes of the lip are near the margin and partially intrmural and the apical lobe is suborbicular with a constriction betweeen the lobe and the lateral lobes. In the large flowered variation the carinae are about half way between the central callus and the margins and the apical lobes is ovate and indistinctly demarcated from the lateral lobes." Luer 2000,
Synonyms Effusiella flexuosa Luer 2007; Humboldtia flexuosa (Poepp. & Endl.) Kuntze 1891; Humboldtia kefersteiniana (Rchb.f.) Kuntze 1891; Humboltia kefersteiniana (Rchb. f.) Kuntze 1891; Pleurothallis elachopus Rchb. f. 1884; Pleurothallis kefersteiniana Rchb. f. 1852; Pleurothallis remotiflora C. Schweinf. 1952; *Specklinia flexuosa Poepp. & Endl. 1835; Stelis flexuosa (Poepp. & Endl.) Pridgeon & M.W.Chase 2001; Stelis kefersteiniana (Rchb.f.) Pridgeon & M.W.Chase 2002;
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ;
Nov. Gen. Sp. Pl. 1: 52 Poepp & Endl. 1836 as Specklinia flexuoosa; * Edwards's Bot. Reg. 28(Misc.): 69 Lindley 1842; Bot. Zeitung (Berlin) 10: 673 Rchb.f 1852 as P kefersteiniana; Bonplandia Rchb.f 1854 as P kerfersteinia; Gard. Chron., n.s., 21: 109 Rchb.f 1884 as P elachopus; Revis. Gen. Pl. 2: 667 Kuntze 1891 as Humboltia flexuosa; Revis. Gen. Pl. 2: 667 Kuntze 1891 as Humboltia kefersteiniana;
Xenia Orchidaceae Vol 3 Reichenbach 1893 drawing fide; Amer. Orchid Soc. Bull. 21: 108 Schweinfurth 1952 as P remotiflora; Venezuelan Orchids Illustrated Vol 1 Dunsterville & Garay 1959 drawing fide; AOS Bulletin Vol 30 No 5 1961; Flora de Venezuela Foldats Volumen XV Part 2 1970 as P elachopus; Flora de Venezuela Foldats Volumen XV Part 2 1970 drawing fide; Selbyana 1: 182 Luer 1975 drawing fide; Orchids of Venezuela, An Illustrated Field Guide Vol 3 Dunsterville & Garay 1979 drawing fide; Miniature Orchids Northen 1980; Icones Pleurothallidinarum Vol III Systematics of Pleurothallis Luer 1986; Icones Orchidacearum Peruviarum Plate 352 Bennett & Christenson 1995 drawing fide; Native Colombian Orchids Vol 6 COS 1998 photo fide; Orchids of Venezuela [An illustrated field guide] Vol. 3 Ramiro and Carnevali 2000 drawing fide; Orchids of Bolivia Vol 1 Pleurothallidinae Vasquez & Ibisch 2000 drawing/photo fide; Lindleyana Vol 16 No 4:263 Pridgeon & M.W.Chase 2001 as Stelis flexuosa; Native Ecuadorian Orchids Vol 4 Dodson 2003 photo fide; Flora of the Venezuelan Guayana Vol 7 Steyermark, Berry, Yatskievych and Holst 2003 as Stelis tolimensis; Icones Pleurothallidinarum Vol XXIX A Third Century of Stelis In Ecuador Systematics of Apoda-Prorepentia Luer 2007 as Effusiella flexuosa; Orchid Species Of Peru Zelenko & Bermudez 2009 photo fide as Specklinia flexuosa; Mille et Une Mini Orchideees Roguenant 2009 as Stelis kefersteiniana photo good; Orquideas del Valle de Aburra Medellin Colombia Orqidelogia 2014 photo good
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